IVR Content Stream Coordination via VXML Extensions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Interactive voice response (IVR) systems primarily deliver audio content and lack the capability to seamlessly integrate and coordinate multiple media types, such as video and audio, during calls, limiting the engagement and information delivery to users.
Innovation Solution
Extensions to the Voice extensible Markup Language (VXML) standard are introduced to enable IVR systems to deliver and coordinate various media types, including video and audio, by specifying playback order, timing, and synchronization of content streams, allowing for concurrent or sequential playback and control of content streams.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If IVR systems deliver only audio content, then system simplicity is maintained, but user engagement and information delivery are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The IVR system is extended to handle multiple media types (audio, video, text) through a unified content delivery framework. The system can deliver different media types based on terminal capabilities, making it universally applicable to various device types while maintaining a single system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The content delivery system is segmented into independent content streams that can be individually controlled and coordinated. Each media type is treated as a separate stream that can be delivered, synchronized, and managed independently, allowing the system to maintain simplicity while supporting multiple media types.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple content streams are delivered without coordination, then content delivery flexibility is improved, but playback synchronization and timing control are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms to monitor the playback state of multiple content streams and adjust delivery timing accordingly. This ensures that video, audio, and text streams are synchronized properly while maintaining the flexibility to deliver different content types.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-coordinates the delivery of multiple content streams by establishing playback order and timing information in advance. This preliminary coordination ensures that when content streams are delivered flexibly, they maintain proper synchronization and timing relationships.
3Adaptability or versatility
If video content is added to IVR calls, then user engagement is improved, but system complexity and coordination requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The content delivery system is made dynamic by allowing the IVR system to adapt content delivery based on terminal capabilities and call context. The system can dynamically select which media types to deliver and how to coordinate them, providing multimedia capability without requiring fixed complex coordination for all scenarios.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable an interactive voice response (IVR) system to deliver content streams of various media types (e.g., video, audio, etc.) to telecommunications terminals. The illustrative embodiment provides extensions to the Voice extensible Markup Language (VXML) standard that enable an IVR system script to specify the playback order, timing, and coordination of multiple content streams (e.g., whether an audio stream and a video stream should be played back concurrently or serially; whether a particular content stream should finish before playback of another content stream commences; whether a content stream that is currently playing should be stopped and supplanted with another content stream, etc.).